Sunday, September 15, 2013

Paradigm Shifts, Puppy Therapy, and Pregnancy

Well, I’m
about a month and a half into medical school

It’s been a hectic
month and a half.

Last Monday,
we had two tests, one of which was a final for the Behavioral Medicine and
Development class (BD). The other was the second of three midterms for
Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MCBG) class. It’s nice to have BD over,
and we have one week left of MCGB before anatomy starts. I’m looking forward to
it, actually – MCBG has essentially been an intense undergraduate course with a
clinical application here and there. While interesting, once we start anatomy I’ll
feel like we’re actually getting somewhere. Oh, and after the tests, the school
brought in some dogs for the students to pet – “puppy therapy,” they called it.
As funny as it seemed, it actually was a bit therapeutic to spend some time
with one of the labs!

Before
starting medical school, I heard some medical students comment about the
paradigm shift that often occurs once you start. In undergrad, those of us who
are now in medical school were all neurotic type A folks (ok, that hasn’t changed) who were generally at the top of our
class. I don’t say that to boast – we had to be. We had something to prove. Now,
though, we’re all together in one room. That means that many of us who used to be
at the top are now… average. That’s not a bad thing. It would be an honor to be
even in the lower echelons of a class full of people as intelligent and
dedicated as my classmates. It’s just different.

I for, one,
am still regularly impressed by the quality of my classmates. These people are
smart. It’s not infrequently that I get the sneaking sensation that I’m not
supposed to be here; that I’m an imposter of sorts. The rate at which these
people can acquire and regurgitate large volumes of information, seemingly
without effort, never ceases to impress. I’ve generally never been one who
could simply hear something once and retain it forever – I need to work at it.
Hard. That translates into hours spent studying just to try and stay caught up
in things like small group sessions. Of course, I’m sure my classmates are
putting in some daunting legwork themselves, but if they are, most of them seem
no worse for the wear. Ah well.

On that note,
Anki has continued to be a great tool for me. I need that regular, daily
repetition to really make things sink in. I wish I would have used it, at least
to some extent, in undergrad. I would have retained a heck of a lot more. Its
efficacy cannot be overstated, at least in my case.

What to Expect When You’re Expecting

Now for the
more interesting news – we found out during the first week of medical school
that my wife is pregnant! We’re both very excited, and looking forward to next
spring.

When my wife
told me that she was pregnant, my first reaction was one of complete excitement.
That was quickly followed by a reaction similar to Gary Cooper’s in the film What to Expect When You’re Expecting
(not out loud, though!):

After that,
though, I felt a very profound sense of… responsibility, I suppose. We are going
to raise a child. That is pretty incredible.

Of course,
this has been a less-than-optimal time to go through the genetics component of
MCBG, where we are learning about all of the chromosomal bad things that can
happen to a developing child. They are rare events, of course, but still! It was
nice to finish that section of the course.

We both
continue to eagerly look forward to a healthy pregnancy and, hopefully, a smooth
delivery. My poor wife has had to put up with a busy husband and some pretty
nasty nausea. Hopefully that will get a bit better here in a few weeks as she gets
through her first trimester. In the meantime.Zofran is awesome.